211 replies to this topic

[Alex Morgaine]

Viktor Drake, on 21 December 2016 - 11:25 AM, said:

Well since it appears a major part of the issue is a population imbalance I say we look to lore and remove the possibility of mercs being offered a contract to fight for the Clans. Seriously, the Clan's HATE mercs so why is this even a thing.

Also it would force alot of people who tend to jump where the wind blows strongest to actually pick a side and stick with it. I mean how the hell does PGI expect to be able to balance FW when you can just Merc up and move to whatever side you perceive has an advantage? For example, as soon as you give enough incentive to the IS to balance things out, Mercs who were Clan will just jump to the IS side and all of a sudden you have the same issue on this time IS is dominant. Make people pick a side, then balance around the faction population.

In short, clans = loyalist only, mercs IS only. Does lore approve?

[Y E O N N E]

Doesn't matter if lore approves if players don't approve. That's the real hurdle, and I bet dollars to doughnuts that most won't.

[MauttyKoray]

McMurl, on 14 December 2016 - 05:31 PM, said:

So i really enjoy playing Faction warfare, and this most recent patch made FW pretty awesome. Problem is, it seems like the clans are more organized or just doing better all together, but i dont think this is because of balance. More tonnage, most mechs can take more damage per ton and their weapons are great for applying their full damage in a more accurate fashion, etc. Clans only really have a (small) range advantage and can fit more weapons due to less tonnage per heavy weapon.

What can be done to keep the IS interested? 10 v 12? 48 mechs vs 36 mechs? it really just seems the IS just isnt as organized as the clans, so they keep losing

Honestly? Comp/high skill groups need to spread themselves out. Its not a competition/tournament so comp groups clinging to pure meta is what is dragging FW down the most.

I understand everyone has preferences, its possible things need to happen such as certain factions (i.e. loyalists) might need mech restrictions to be lore based? I can't think of any actual way to influence the decisions comp groups make to choose their faction outside of making all mechs playable on both sides, but that also brings about issues.

So...don't know...

[Alex Morgaine]

Ok lock accounts permanently like suggested above. Give a one time option to separate is and clan content to two accounts (duplicating all non faction locked mc items like paints and decorations, achievements/titles/badges) and lock in each resistive faction automatically. Make new players after the 25 matches pick a faction. Want to try the other side? New account. Usually the first thing any faction based pvp game sets up before character creation is which faction your character will run in. No more hopping around for either side. If population recovers, maybe, just maybe offer something later. But not right now.

[Y E O N N E]

This game is most analogous to something like War Thunder and World of Tanks.

Those games do not lock you into a faction. You hop around the progression tree playing whatever you want.

Besides, separating content to two accounts solves nothing; players will just spend more time playing the account of whatever faction they feel like and balk at the inconvenience of having to sign out and back in.

[Alex Morgaine]

I know but people will cry foul if something locks them out of any of their Mechs for any reason. Look at quiting on death or the occasional ***** and moaner yelling at everyone in a bad match still alive to just die or kill the other team asap to get to another match instead of just picking a different Mech while that match continues.

[Dogstar]

>Besides, separating content to two accounts solves nothing; players will just spend more time playing the account of whatever faction they feel like and balk at the inconvenience of having to sign out and back in.

I have two accounts, one IS and one clan, and that is the end result for me, my clan account is still getting the cadet bonus despite the fact that I've bought the Night Gyr, Huntsman, Linebacker, and Origins packs...silly me.

[Widowmaker1981]

Alan Davion, on 21 December 2016 - 02:40 PM, said:

Which is the main problem of the CW/FW portion of the game. The game itself has too damn small a player base to allow the continual flip-flopping of units from IS to Clan or vice versa, just like before they finally narrowed it down to simply "IS VS CLAN" instead of Davion vs Kurita and Liao, Kurita vs Davion and FRR, Steiner vs FRR and Marik, Marik vs Steiner and Liao, Liao vs Marik and Davion, Ghost Bear vs Kurita and Smoke Jaguar, Smoke Jaguar vs Ghost Bear and Wolf, Wolf vs Smoke Jaguar and Jade Falcon, Jade Falcon vs Wolf and Steiner.

The game had too small a player base to support so many separate factions.

Even still the player base is too small to support this constant flip-flopping we see with the top units depending on what new shiny mech has come out.

It's time for PGI to lock the sides down. Wipe out all contracts. Let everyone choose IS or Clan, and once you've chosen, that's it. Deal with it. If you don't have an account for IS and an account for Clan, too bad,

Id be absolutely fine with that, as long as the dropdeck game modes are accessible in a quick play queue (ideally with matchmaking as well)... what i wouldn't be OK with is never being able to use dropdecks with either clan or IS mechs again.

[Alan Davion]

Yeonne Greene, on 21 December 2016 - 08:52 PM, said:

This game is most analogous to something like War Thunder and World of Tanks.

Those games do not lock you into a faction. You hop around the progression tree playing whatever you want.

Besides, separating content to two accounts solves nothing; players will just spend more time playing the account of whatever faction they feel like and balk at the inconvenience of having to sign out and back in.

The big problem comparing MWO to World of Tanks/Warplanes/Warships is those games don't recreate actual locations or battles like Midway or Berlin or the Western Front. They just have the various artillery/planes/tanks/vessels of the specific nations thrown together into random teams where people can drive their favorite nation or learn about others and just have a grand old time pasting each other.

MWO, specifically CW/FW was supposed to originally recreate the various battles between the Inner Sphere houses, and then the Clans come stomping onto the scene. Obviously this was a huge failure at first as there was almost no reason for anyone to be a Loyalist unit, outside of a few units that just well and truly loved one faction and one faction only. Not to mention all those changes to C-Bill/XP for joining one house or another led to even more flip-flopping.

Granted this has changed now that CW/FW is strictly IS vs Clan, but you still get units flip-flopping from one side to the other and back again, just now it's all up to which shiny new mech has been released that month.

Battletech/Mechwarrior has always been about picking one faction, or, if you've got serious cash to burn, you can create units for any and all of the various houses or clans if you're so inclined. But this game in particular really requires picking one side or the other, or both if you created two accounts and sticking with it.

[QuantumButler]

MauttyKoray, on 21 December 2016 - 08:46 PM, said:

Honestly? Comp/high skill groups need to spread themselves out. Its not a competition/tournament so comp groups clinging to pure meta is what is dragging FW down the most.

I understand everyone has preferences, its possible things need to happen such as certain factions (i.e. loyalists) might need mech restrictions to be lore based? I can't think of any actual way to influence the decisions comp groups make to choose their faction outside of making all mechs playable on both sides, but that also brings about issues.

So...don't know...

They don't cling to "pure meta" though? They often bring their "just **** around" builds even into CW, but the fact is you could give the best players some really poor builds [or at least some not great builds] and they''d still win through coordination and skill.

[QuantumButler]

Alex Morgaine, on 21 December 2016 - 08:48 PM, said:

Ok lock accounts permanently like suggested above. Give a one time option to separate is and clan content to two accounts (duplicating all non faction locked mc items like paints and decorations, achievements/titles/badges) and lock in each resistive faction automatically. Make new players after the 25 matches pick a faction. Want to try the other side? New account. Usually the first thing any faction based pvp game sets up before character creation is which faction your character will run in. No more hopping around for either side. If population recovers, maybe, just maybe offer something later. But not right now.

If they did this they might as well just forgo the "pick a side" fiction completely, and just let you run a clanner "character" and an IS "Character" on the same account so you could play for either side at will.

Alex Morgaine, on 21 December 2016 - 09:08 PM, said:

I know but people will cry foul if something locks them out of any of their Mechs for any reason. Look at quiting on death or the occasional ***** and moaner yelling at everyone in a bad match still alive to just die or kill the other team asap to get to another match instead of just picking a different Mech while that match continues.

Those are valid complaints though? Sounds like you're guilty of making people wait and don't like being called out on it.

[Dogstar]

>they might as well just forgo the "pick a side" fiction completely, and just let you run a clanner "character" and an IS "Character" on the same account so you could play for either side at will.

I have no idea why they don't do this already! It's win-win: player buys more mechs and plays more games, PGI profit!